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ON THE 



liif e, Character and Public Services 



OP THE LATE 



PRESIDENT JAMES K. POLK, 

DELIVERED AT LAWRENCEBURG, TENNESSEE, OCTOBER 8, 1849. 



BY 



SAMUEL B. GAKKETT. 



LAWRENCEBURG: 

PRINTED AT THE "MIDDLE TENNESSEAn'' OFFICE. 

1819 



^m 






€ o r r e § p © 21 d e n e e . 



LAWRENCEBURG, Oct. 10th, 1849. 
SIR— 

The undersigned, a committee appointed 
by a previous meeting of the members of the Bar, respectfully request, 
for publication, a copy of your Address, delivered on the 8th instant, 
upon the "Character and Public Services of James K. Polk," late Pre- 
sident of the United States. 

We cannot close this communication without expressing our indi- 
vidual gratification for the very able and faithful manner in which you 
have portrayed the character and the public services of our late gifted 
Chief Magistrate — whose death we all alike deplore as a great national 
calamity. Very respectfully, 

Your obt. servt. 

A. WRIGHT, 
L. M. BENTLEY, 
R. H. ROSE. 
Samuel B. Garrett, Esq., 

Lawrenceburg, Tenn. 

« # " 

LAWRENCEBURG, Oct. 11, 1849. 
Mr. S. B. Garrett, 

Sir: The undersigned respectfully request a 
publication of the Eulogy, upon the life and character of our late Pres- 
ident, James K. Polk, delivered by you at the court-house, on Monday 
the 8th instant, and oblige, Yours, &c, 

S. E. ROSE, C. B. CROOK, 

S. ORR, W. P. ROWLES, 

FRANK, HUGHES, SAML. LUCKIE, 

J. Y. UJCAf, B. H. GLOVER, 

C. BSTES, H. C. ANGEL, 

WM. E. AUSTIN, T. D. DEAVENPORT, 

ISAIAH IVY, N. M. DALE, 

31. L. BENTLEY, W. A. EDMISTON, 

G. T. SIMONfeON, F. C. ALLEN, 

A. S. ALEXANDER, R. D. PARRISII, 

J. B. KOSURE, GEO. G. IIERRON, 



I 



U A T fl ® M 



Ffxlow~Citizens:-~A imposition has ever been shown by the 
enlightened portion of mankind to honor the memory of those 
who while living were eminent for genius and learning united 
with great moral worth and devoted to their country's service 
and the advancement of the well-being and happiness of their 
fellow-men. When it is made known that such an one, having 
laid aside what is mortal, has put on immortality, a consciousness 
of the bereavement they have sustained spreads a gloom over the 
tninds of his countrymen; they feel that a benefactor, a friend has 
been taken from them; that a link is broken in the great chain 
which united them with the past— a tie severed which no grati- 
tude or affection however ardent can ever restore. Their thoughts 
dwell on the character and conduct of the deceased, and as each 
noble trait and each meritorious and honorable action that distin- 
guished his career, presents itself to their minds, their tenderest 
sensibilities are awakened, a chord in their bosoms is touched 
which vibrates to the most generous impulses of their nature, and 
an irresistible desire is felt to give some outward manifestation 
of the painful emotions their bereavement has occasioned. 

To such feelings as these— feelings so honorable to our nature, 
and utterly opposed to that callous selfishness which usually gov- 
erns the actions of men— we must ascribe the funeral rites of the 
great and renowned whom death has removed, "the hearse with 
'scutcheons blazoned and waving plumes of ostrich crowned, 1 ' 
the solemn funeral procession, the sable badges and symbols of 



mourning which the living put on, and all the pomp and pageantry 
of grief by which they seek to testify their respect for the mem- 
ory of the deceased and the sorrow his loss has occasioned. 

But these pageants, much as they deserve commendation for 
the motives which prompt them, are not free from objection. — 
Addressing themselves entirely to the imagination of the behold- 
er, they convey no useful instruction and make no permanent 
impression on his mind. Like the fleeting shadows of pantomime, 
the images they convey are indistinct and confused — the ideas of 
which they are the intended emblems are too vague and indefin- 
ite thoroughly to enlist the feelings or instruct the understanding. 
Passing quickly away, they leave to the spectator "an aching 
void," a painful sense of their inadequacy to express the emo- 
tions of a rational mind, and of their utter vanity when offered as 
a tribute to departed worth. 

This sense of their inadequacy to the purpose for which they 
are intended, has led to another custom more suited to the tastes 
and more in harmony with the spirit of a cultivated and enlight- 
ened age. It is now the practice, when Death overtakes any 
individual eminent for his virtues and for the benefits he has con- 
ferred on his fellow-men, to select some person acquainted with 
his character and history, who may embody as nearly as possi- 
ble in words the vivid emotions of the multitude, and diiect 
their thoughts to whatever in his character and conduct may be 
worthy of contemplation and remembrance. This practice com- 
mends itself both to our reason and our affections; for, whilst it 
pays the highest possible tribute to the memory of the dead, it ex- 
cites the emulation of the living, exalts their patriotism, and infu- 
ses into free government that public spirit which, if not essential 
to its existence, is at least one of its firmest and most durable 
supports. 

In conformity with this usage, and in compliance with the 
wishes of my brethren of the Bar, to whose kind partiality I owe 
the call they have made upon me, I appear before you to-day to 
recount the public actions, and as far as my humble powers will 
allow, to portray the private virtues of one who after a life spent 



7 

in high civil employment and illustrated by numerous brilliant 
events in which he was a prominent or the chief actor, has at 
last ceased from his labors and gone to his reward. I am to 
speak to you of the life, character and public services of James 
K. Polk, late Chief-Magistrate of this Republic. If a bare en- 
umeration of the virtues of this eminent man, or of the honors 
successively bestowed upon him by his countrymen, were all that 
you required or expected of me on this occasion, my task would 
be comparatively easy and pleasant. But interwoven as hi3 his- 
tory is with that of his country; breathing as he did for many 
years of his life a political atmosphere; and stamped as our insti- 
tutions are with the impress of his mind and his opinions, I shall 
be compelled in the discharge of the duty assigned me to remark 
upon his official conduct. In doing so it is not improbable that I 
shall utter sentiments directly opposed to those entertained by 
many of my hearers. To such let me here say that, following 
the example of all former eulogists of deceased statesmen, I shall 
speak of Mr. Polk's acts with all the freedom of an American 
citizen reviewing the conduct of a public servant, and bestow 
such commendation on the measures of his Administration as I 
think they deserve. At the same time I shall endeavor to treat 
with due respect the feelings and opinions of those who differ 
with me, and I trust that when I conclude I shall have the satis- 
faction to know that not an expression has fallen from my lips to 
which the most sensitive or the most fastidious can take any just 
exception. We came not here, fellow -citizens, to seek a renew- 
al of party strife around the grave of our departed President, or 
to desecrate that grave with unfriendly remembrances. Laying 
aside our party differences, we have met together in the spirit 
not of partizans, but of American freemen, to testify our regret 
for the loss of an illustrious countryman, and to offer to his mem- 
ory the tribute of our gratitude and admiration. There is amoral 
grandeur, a sublimity, a beauty in such a scene which cannot fail 
to impress the mind of every beholden Far be it from me to 
seek to mar such beauty by tearing open the healed wounds of 
party. Far be the thought or the wish to disturb the pious bar- 



mony which prevails by mingling with the voice of mourning a 
single note of discord. 

In the State of North Carolina, on the southern border of that 
State is a county called Mecklenburg, a rural and secluded dis- 
trict, remote from the pomp of courts, the. bustle of cities and the 
din of trade. In this county of Mecklenburg, about a century 
ago, an event occurred which though overlooked in the whirl of 
the mighty revolution that followed, is now one of the most fa- 
mous in our country's annals — I mean the First Declaration of 
American Independence, The Genius of Liberty driven by des- 
pots from the Old World, and by the servile tools of a despot, 
England's provincial governors from the Atlantic shores of the New 
found a secure retreat nmid the romantic solitudes of Mecklen- 
burg. There reposing till God's appointed time was come, she 
sprang forth at His command from her hiding place, and waving 
her wand of deliverance over a prostrate and down-trodden peo- 
ple, bade them arise and be free. The county selected by Pro- 
vidence as the scene of this memorable event, gave birth to him 
whose life and character form the subject of my discourse. — 
In Mecklenburg, on the 2nd day of November, 1795, James K» 
Polk first saw the light of the natural day, and of that bright 
moral day which had succeeded the dark night of his country's 
tribulation. Enviable distinction to have his birth thus associa- 
ted with that of a nation's freedom! Happy privilege to be wel- 
comed to the scenes of earth with the smiles of those who were 
the first to assert and among the bravest to defend their country's 
independence! Under the watchful eye and guardian care of 
these bold champions of freedom the infant years of the future 
Statesman and Magistrate were passed. By them his infant 
tongue was first taught to lisp the sacred name of liberty. From 
their lips he first learned the thrilling story of his country's 
wrongs, her sufferings and her triumphs; and from them his young 
bosom caught the inspiration of that lofty patriotism which gui- 
ded him through the many and trying difficulties of a course of 
public service embracing the most eventful period of his coun- 
try's history. The impressions made ou the tender and suscep- 



iiblo minds of the young are the deepest and most durable. 

Happy the man who like James K. Polk receives those impres- 
sions from the daily converse of the wise, the virtuous and the 
brave; and happy, thrice happy, the country whose rulers, instead 
of being early imbued with the arbitrary spirit and taught the ar- 
bitrary maxims of despotism, learn the true end and aim of hu- 
man government from the friends and defenders of the rights of 
mankind. 

In the year 180G, young Polk being then in the 11th year of 
his age, his father, Maj. Samuel Polk, left North Carolina and 
migrated to Tennessee; selecting for his residence the county of 
Maury, at that time in the infancy of its settlement, but now the 
most densely populated and beat cultivated part of the State.— 
From an apprehension that his son ? s health was too much impair- 
ed to bear the confinement and sedentary habits of professional 
life, Maj. Polk determined to dedicate him to mercantile pursuits, 
and accordingly, after having him properly instructed in the ele- 
mentary branches of an English education, placed him as a clerk 
in a commercial house. 

But the position of a tradesman, honorable and respectable as 
that position is, did not suit the tastes, or accord with the ambi- 
tious views of James K. Polk. He felt that he was created for a 
more extended sphere of action— he thought that a higher destiny 
awaited him than after a life spent in what he considered the 
inglorious drudgery of trade and the obscurity of the counting- 
room, 

to sink down 
To the vile dust from whence he sprung, 
Unwept, unhonored and unsung ! 

Nature had left in hi3 bosom no place for the duri sacra fames, 
The pursuit of gain, the accumulations of the most successful traf- 
fic, were viewed by him with indifference and contempt — the 
indifference and contempt of one who fondly hoped, ere life 1 ? 
journey ended, 

to climb 
The steep where Fame's proud temple shines afar. 

With such aspirations thus early kindled in his bosom, it Is not 



10 

jurpriting that bis vocation soon became intolerably irksome, and 
that he besought his father to allow him to follow the bent of his 
own inclination. His fathers anxieties for his health at length 
yielded to his importunities and to his own high appreciation of 
the value of intellectual culture, and he determined to afford him 
the means of acquiring an education. Having taken this resolu- 
tion, he sent him first to the Academy at Murfreesboro, from 
which institution, after the usual preparatory study, he transferred 
him to the University of North Carolina. 

The conduct of James K. Polk, while at the University, was a 
model of diligence and subordination to the government of the 
institution. Though belonging to that class of society which fur- 
nishes to orar seminaries of learning so many of the votaries of 
pleasure; the idle, voluptuous and dissolute habits of those of his 
associates who preferred the midnight debauch to the odor of the 
"midnight oil," had no charms for him. Avoiding their excess- 
es, their frivolities and their follies, and secluding himself as 
much as possible from their society, he applied himself with an 
assiduity seldom equalled, never surpassed, to the improvement of 
his mind. So persevering, so constant was his application that 
during the whole of his collegiate course, it is said, he wa? nev- 
er known to be absent from a recitation. The consequence of 
such diligence was, that he outstripped every competitor for col- 
legiate distinction, and received at each semi-annual examina- 
tion, including that which closed his collegiate course, the high- 
est honors of his class. 

Returning to Tennessee with health impaired, but his men- 
tal powers greatly invigorated by the severe training they had 
undergone, he commenced the study of Law in the office of the 
late Felix Grundy. Under the instruction of this eminent jurist he 
was soon qualified for practice, and in the year 1820, was admit- 
ted to the Bar. His short, but brilliant professional career pre- 
sents no incident worthy of particular mention. Adhering to the 
habits of diligence formed in his youth, he thoroughly mastered 
the details of every casein which he wag engaged, ?~nd bringing 
to bear upon it the resources ci a fertile and active minH, well- 



ii 

stored with legal and general learning, he seldom failed of suc- 
cess. In one year from the time of obtaining license he found 
himself in the possession of a lucrative practice, and ranking, in 
the estimation of the community and in the deference paid to his 
legal opinions, with the oldest members of the profession. Such 
success is unusual even on a provincial theatre and leaves us no 
room to doubt that his continuance in the profession would have 
soon secured to him its highest honors and rewards. But his 
friends and neighbors discovered in his varied attainments a ca- 
pacity for usefulness in another walk of life. They saw that he 
possessed qualifications for the duties of legislation; and they 
railed him into the political fluid. At their earnest solicitation, 
in the year 1823, he became a candidate and was elected to the 
Legislature as the Representative from Maury. In this position 
he remained two years, and so ably and satisfactorily did he dis- 
charge his duties, that at the expiration of that time, the people 
of the District of which Maury forms a part, elected him their 
Representative in Congress. 

The period of Mr. Polk's service in Congress extends over a 
space of fourteen years, embracing the whole of the administra- 
tions of John Quincy Adams and Gen. Jackson and a part of that 
of Mr. Van Buren. It was a stormy period in American poli- 
tics. T«o great parties, advocating widely different measures, 
were arrayed against each other and struggling for the ascend- 
ancy with all the fierceness of the most rancorous political ani- 
mosity. In this struggle, Mr. Polk was an active participant* 
and though he stood aloof from the personal wranglings which 
so often disgraced the proceedings of Congress, and in his con- 
flicts with the opposition disdained to use the favorite weapon i 
of weak politicians, personal invective and abuse, he zealously 
defended and maintained the doctrines of the political faith recei- 
ved fiom his fathers. In the discussion of the great questions that 
came before Congress, he took a prominent, often a loading part, 
exhibiting in his speeches an originality, vigor and depth of 
thought, a fullness of research, and a force of reasoning which 
soon placed Wim in the front rank of debaters in a body of men 



l*i 

numbering among its members some of ihe most gifted intellect! 
of the nation. The language spoken of the late Mr. Adams, 
with a slight variation may be applied with equal truth to him : 
«* He was not the Salaminian galley to be launched only on ex- 
traordinary occasions, but he was the ready vessel, always launch- 
ed when the duties of his station required it, be the occasion great 
cr small. As a Member of the House of Representatives, the ob- 
scure committee room was as much the witness of his laborious 
application to the drudgery ojf legislation, as the hall of the house 
was to the ever ready speech, replete with knowledge, which 
instructed all hearers, enlightened all subjects, and gave dignity 
and ornament to debate/' 

At the opening of the House in the year 1835, he was called 
to preside over its deliberations as Speaker. The post of Speaker 
is one of high trust and responsibility, its duties arduous and diffi- 
cult. During the time Mr. Polk held the office the discharge of 
these duties was rendered doubly arduous by the embarrassments 
and difficulties which a bitter political, and with respect to some 
members personal, animosity threw in his way. Of the manner 
in which he acquitted himself, as well as the assiduity with which 
he attended to business before his elevation to the Speaker's 
chair, some idea may be formed from the statement he made 
when about to retire from Congress at the close of the session of 
1839. » Since I have been a member of this House," said he, "I 
have not failed to attend its sittings a single day, except on one 
occasion when prevented for a short time by indisposition. Du- 
ring the time I have filled this chair, it has been made my duty 
to decide more questions of parliamentary law, some of them of 
a complex and difficult character, than have been decided by all 
my predecessors since the foundation of the government. My 
decisions have been uniformly sustained by the House, without 
distinction of the political panics of which it is composed." 

Such was James K. Polk in the character of Legislator, Dili- 
gent, prompt to obey every call of duty, punctual in his attend- 
ance on the sittings of the House, attentive to all business that came 
before it, whether it was some war-worn veteran's humble peti- 



tiOn for a pension or a vast and vital question affecting the in- 
terests of millions, tie was the same untiring, indefatigable ser- 
vant of the people, (he whole people. No fatigue of excessive 
or protracted labor could drive him from his seat; no seeming se- 
curity of the public interests relaxed his vigilance. A faithful 
sentinel on the watch-tower of liberty, he was never found slum- 
bering at his post. His conduct is perhaps without a parallel in 
our legislative history, and it should be the study and the model 
of all to whom shall hereafter be committed the high trust of 
framing their country's laws and guarding her rights and honor. 

During the five years that elapsed from the time of his retire- 
ment from Congress, till his elevation to the Presidency, he was 
alternately engaged in the political struggles of his own State or 
the prosecution of his profession. Passing over this interval as 
barren of interest and developing no new feature of his charac- 
ter, (unless it be the manly firmness exhibited by him under polit- 
ical defeat, equal if not superior to his modest dignity in the hour 
of his most splendid triumphs,) we will proceed to consider his 
conduct in the high position to which the voluntary and unsolici- 
ted suffrages of his countrymen called him in the year 1844 — the 
exalted, arduous, and responsible position of Chief-Magistrate of 
this great Republic. 

The election of 1814 will be long remembered for the unusual 
animation of the canvass that preceded it, and the number of the 
great questions it involved. In proportion to the number 
and magnitude of these questions was the interest felt by the 
people in theii decision. So absorbing was this interest — so com- 
pletely did the state of our affairs engross the thoughts and feel- 
ings of the community, and so thoroughly were their passions and 
prejudices aroused, that all classes for a time laid aside their sev- 
eral vocations, and resuming the functions delegated to their 
representatives, resolved themselves into a sort of 'committee of 
the whole' to debate the affairs of State. Every question of policy, 
foreign and domestic, was thoroughly canvassed before them; 
every subject relating to commerce, manufactures, finance or 
other national interest, was subjected to the ordeal of the most 



14 

rigid and searching examination of all its practical bearings upon 
the prosperity of ihe country. At length, after months of dis- 
cussion, the people through the ballot-box pronounced their 
judgment on the issues before them. Whatever opinion you 
may have formed, fellow-citizens, of the correctness of that 
judgment — whether you regard it as one of those sudden and un- 
accountable popular impulses so common in Republican commu- 
nities, or as the deliberate and enlightened verdict of a people 
competent to decide the great questions before them, you are 
compelled to admit the obligation resting on Mr. Polk to conform 
to that judgment in administering the affairs of government. — 
The issues on which the election turned, the discussions which 
preceded it, and the decision in which those discussions termina- 
ted, plainly pointed out the path he was expected to pursue— he 
could tread in no other without a gross breach of duty, honor, and 
gratitude to those who elected him. Much, then, as you may 
condemn the policy he pursued, you must admire the stern re- 
publican spirit which prompted him to persevere with unshaken 
and unyielding constancy against every obstacle and difficulty in 
carrying out the will of those to whom he owed his elevation. 

Among the issues involved in the election of 1814, was that of 
a high or low Tariff — taxation for revenue or for protection.— 
From the earliest period of the Republic to the present time the 
question of the Tariff has been the touch-stone, the shibboleth of 
party. No other has drawn party lines so broadly and deeply; 
no other, not entirely of a sectional character, has given rise to 
such vehement and angry controversy. On the one side, a large 
class of our fellow-citizens, comprising much of the talent and 
wealth of the country, contend that Congress, in adjusting the 
revenue, should look beyond the mere object of raising the means 
to carry on the government, and so lay the duties that the neces- 
sary result will be protection to some favorite branch of industry. 
Opposed to these is a class composed, for the most part, of the ag- 
ricultural portion of the people, who maintain that to make the 
revenue laws the menns of fostering any particular class, can be 
done only at the expense cf all other classes, and is a perversion 



15 

of the powers of Congress to purposes not warranted by the Con- 
stitution; that it favors capital at the expense of labor, encourages 
monopoly, cripples commerce, promotes the growth of a lordly 
and pampered aristocracy, and engenders a narrow sectionalism 
dangerous to (he peace and safety of the Union. Maintaining this 
doctrine, they demand that our revenue system shall be confined 
strictly to the object of raising the means of meeting the expenses 
of government, and they ask no other protection than that which 
is incidentally afforded by a Tariflfbtought within such a standard. 

The contest between these parties, commencing soon after the 
foundation of the government, continued with various success un- 
til the year 1842. At that lime the advocates of protection be- 
ing in the ascendancy, eagerly embraced the opportunity afford- 
cd by their temporary control of the government to carry out 
their long cherished principles. The system which they establish* 
ed, known as the Act of 1842, was framed with the utmost care and 
skill of some of the most experienced political architects of the day$ 
acting under the immediate supervision and direction of their 
great leader. This system, when completed, they fondly hoped 
was destined to a duration commensurate with that of the govern- 
ment. But in this they were disappointed. The people were dis* 
satisfied, and in four years from the time the Act of '42 went into 
operation, their representatives, in obedience to their demands, 
voted its repeal* 

But the interests of the country required of its rulers to enact 
as well as repeal — to build up as well as to pull down. In fur- 
therance of these interests Mr. Polk and his co-laborer<j (among 
whom was that great financier andstatesman, Mr. Walker, whose 
improvements and reforms have introduced a new era in the finance 
of our country) reared another structure in the place of that just 
overturned, of simple plan, just proportions, and admirably 
adapted by the principles of justice and impartiality on which it 
was based to find favor with a republican people, loving equal- 
ity and jealous of any encroachment on their constitutional rights. 
The Tariff of 18 i6, discarding the minimum and specific features 
of that of 1842, and avoiding all artificial distinctions and unnc- 



10 



cessary discrimination?, rests on the broad basis of the ad talorcM 
principle, and imposes no duty not strictly within the revenue 
standard. The consequence of adhering to these just principles 
is, that its operation has been eminently favorable to the prospe- 
rity of the country, far exceeding the hopes of its friends and dis- 
appointing the expectations of its eRemies. No desolation, no 
ruin has followed. The mechanic, with fight heart and active 
hands, plies the implements of his craft, receiving profitable wa- 
ges for his labor, The fields yield abundant harvests to the 
agriculturist, for which he obtains a rendy and adequate 
price; and the voice of every streamlet that meanders through 
the valleys of New England, comes to the ear of the manufactu- 
rer, mingled with the gladsome sound of the loom and the spin- 
dle. Every branch of industry and every class of the people have, 
been left by Mr. Polk, under the operation of this admirable Ta- 
riff, in the most prosperous condition. 

Intimately connected with the revenue, and of hardly less im- 
portance to the prosperity of the country than the act of 1846, 
was the revival by Mr. Polk of the mode of keeping and disburs- 
ing the public money, known as the Independent or Sub-Treasu- 
ry. An experience of the disasters produced by the dependance 
of Government on private corporations, had deeply impressed the 
public mind with the want of some efficient fiscal agent of the 
Government. To supply this want Mr. Van Buren established 
the Independent Treasury. Struck down by the blow of repeal 
before it had time to develope its utility, it was revived under the 
administration of Mr. Polk, and is now in successful operation. — 
A complete revolution in the financial condition of the country 
has been the consequence of its revival. The government, freed 
from its degrading vassalage to faithless and soulless corporations, 
keeps its own money and makes its transfers and disbursements 
ag the exigencies of the public service require. The whole brood 
of rotten corporation?, monstronim horribilium gens, sprung from 
the illicit connection of the government and Banks, have perish- 
ed. Inflations, contractions and expansions have ceased to con- 
tulse the currency and derange the bu«dnc c ? of the country; dis- 



17 

ffust has given place to universal confidence; and the national 
credit, no longer pliant to the will and . subservient to the sordid 
schemes of unprincipled sto£k-jobbers, has risen to a point never 
before attained since the foundation of the Government. 

Besides these measures of domestic policy, Mr. Polk accom- 
plished others highly judicious and salutary. Among, these may 
be mentioned his postage reform; his establishment of territorial 
governments, and of a new department of the General Gov- 
ernment; the ware-housing system; the erection of fortifications en 
*ur western frontier and along the Atlantic coast; and various 
measures to give greater efficiency to the Army and Navy. But 
it is to his foreign and not to his domestic policy we must look for 
the chief glory of his administration and the highest evidence of 
his ability as a Statesman. 

Soon after he assumed the reins of government the public mind 
was thrown into the highest state of excitement by the question 
of the North-West boundary. England, prompted by that spirit 
of cupidity, that insatiable lust of dominion which dictates her 
actions to other nations and has cast so dark a shade over her 
otherwise gioiious history, set up claims to a portion of Oregon, 
to which in the opinion of our Executive our title was '-clear and 
unquestionable," The issue thus joined between the two coun- 
tries naturally excited the deepest interest, and soon became the 
absorbing topic of discussion in the halls of legislation, in the 
newspapers, and in private circles. As the discussion progressed 
and the question still remained undecided, the public mind was 
gradually wrought up to the highest pitch of anxiety. Nor can 
we wonder at this state of feeling when we consider the momen- 
tous nature of the crisis that produced it. On the one hand the 
people saw the white-robed innocence of heaven-Born Peace- 
virtue, justice, contentment, plenty following in her train. On 
the other they saw grim-visaged war advancing his bloody en - 
signs—desolation following in his track, cities plundered, tem- 
ples desecrated, chastity violated, the innocence of childhood ex- 
posed to the rage of a ruthless soldiery, the hoary lock" of age 
clotted with gore! No wonder they lilt anxiety and alarm 



IS 

But \(they were affected thus, what were the feelings of him on 
whom all anxieties centred, to whom all looked for the preserva- 
tion of peace and the prevention of (fie calamities of war, and on 
whose judgment, skill and prudence, at this critical juncture, were 
suspended the lives and happiness of so many thousands of his 
fellow men? Mr. Polk felt all the weight of the responsibility 
resting on him; but he faltered not, he shrunk not from the high 
duties it imposed. Unshaken, undismayed by the perils that en- 
compassed him, like the ancient pilot, when navigating an un- 
known and tempestuous sea, he watched the polar-star that shone 
forth through the thick gloom to direct his uncertain way. Ere 
long the shoals are passed, the danger escaped, and the good old 
ship once more bounding over the billows, with a favoring breeze 
and a clear sky, her prow turned to her destined haven, "walks 
the waters like a thing of life." 

The negotiations set on foot for the peaceful adjustment of the 
Oregon difficulty were at first greatly embarrassed and impeded 
by the arrogant tone and unreasonable demands of the British 
Envoy. Notwithstanding these obstacles — obstacles which, from 
England's well-known pertinacity in urging her demands howev- 
er unjust, might have been well deemed insuperable — Mr. Polk, 
in consideration of the magnitude of the interests at stake, per- 
severed in the negotiation when persons of less discernment than 
himself and less acquainted with the ground on which he stood, 
would have desisted from all further efforts to bring about an am- 
icable arrangement as tending only to widen the breach between 
the two countries and precipitate the very catastrophe he was 
striving to avert. To this well-timed and judicious firmness on 
his part we owe the final settlement of this delicate and danger- 
ous question, so long the subject of fruitless negotiation, and the 
source of so much jealousy, irritation and discord between the 
two countries. Its settlement on terms honorable to the United 
States, reflects the highest credit on the diplomatic abilities of 
the President and his Secretary of State, while their anxious soli- 
citude to preserve the peace of two countries standing in such in- 
teresting relations to each other and to the world as England 



19 

and the United States, is in the last degree honorable to their 
feelings as men, as philanthropists and as christians. Whatever 
praise may be accorded to the other acts of Mr. Polk's adminii - 
tration,inmy humble judgment this peaceful termination of the 
Oregon controversy, drawing two great nations together in the 
bonds of a holier attachment, and bringing mankind nearer to the 
miiienial state of a universal brotherhood, is the crowning act of 
his political life; the brightest flower in his chaplet of renown — 
when all the rest shall have withered and perished, this shall bloom 
in perpetual freshness and beauty. 

While the President, by his firmness and prudence, was thus 
arranging our differences with Great Britain, he was not inatten- 
tive to another great question of boundary which had arisen be- 
tween this country and Mexico. Texas, a neighboring and sister 
republic, moved by a sense of her weakness or a feeling of attach- 
ment to our institutions which neither the unfeeling diplomacy 
that ceded her away nor our subsequent cold neglect could entire- 
ly obliterate, asked to be restored to that place in the great fam- 
ily of States to which as a branch of the same parent stem with 
the rest, and an heir ofthesame inheritance, she was justly enti- 
tled. Having just brought her glorious struggle for independence 
to a successful close, her locks still soiled with the dust of battle, 
her garments dripping with blood, she presented herself at the door 
of the Union and asked for admittance. The people heard her 
petition, and forthwith the order was given to their representa- 
tives for her reception. On Mr. Polk, as Executive of the nation, 
the delicate but pleasing duty devolved of carrying out the peo- 
ple's wishes. Under his direction the necessary preliminaries 
were arranged; and before the close of the first year of his ad- 
ministration the work of re-union was complete, and Texas be- 
come an integral part of the Union; — the "lost Pleiad 1 ' was re- 
stored to her sphere; the "lone star" so long dimly shining above 
the southern horizon, emerged from the clouds that obscured it* 
light, and amid the rejoicings of millions of freemen, resumed its 
appropriate place among the brightest of the American Galaxy. 

Although the annexation of Texas was the result of the volun- 



20 

\My and deliberate choice of two independent power? compe* 
tent to contract, and involved no infraction of the rights of other 
nations, no sooner was the measure consummated, than unequiv- 
ocal indications were given by Mexico of a hostile spirit; and she 
avowed her determination to maintain her asserted title to the 
annexed territory by the ultima ratio of nations, an appeal to arms. 
In pursuance of this determination extensive warlike preparations 
were set on foci by the government of that country, and the 
troops already collected were ordered to proceed to the Rio 
Grande, and having crossed that river, to attack any American 
troops found within the limits of Texas. 

The conflict which followed this movement, fellow-citizens, it 
known to you all. The brilliant victories which marked the 
progress of that conflict from the time our banner was unfurled 
at Palo Alto until it waved in triumph from the walls of the Cap- 
itol, are yet fresh in your recollection; and I should but fatigue 
your patience by detailing them here. Equally uninteresting 
would it be to you to listen to a discussion of the various causes 
which conspired to bring about the collision of the two Repub- 
lics, it such discussion were appropriate to the occasion. It is 
sufficient for the objects of this address to say that whatever of 
guilt the Mexican War involved, rests not with us. It lies, and 
in the judgment of impartial history it must forever lie at the 
door of her who provoked it. Our escutcheon is untarnished; 
our brave troops wear no laurels stained with innocent blood. — 
Mexico, long before the annexation of Texas, forgetting the as- 
sistance received from our countrymen during her own struggle 
for independence, had manifested towards this country a spirit of 
the most inveterate and deep-noted hostility, and heaped upon 
our flag and our citizens a series of the grossest insults and out- 
rages. Our government, in that spirit of magnanimity which a 
powerful nation should ever exhibit towards a weak one, forebore 
to resent these indignities until Mexico emboldened by our for- 
bearance which her infatuation led her to mistake for pusilanim- 
ity, marrhed her troops across her Eastern boundary and shed the 
blood of our citizens on our own soil. At this outrage the pent- 



2i 

ap wrath of the people could no longer be restrained. They rose 
in their strength to vindicate their rights and avenge their insult- 
ed honor. But though their wrath was fierce, it was tempered 
with mercy. Possessing all the dreadful energy of the simoom 
oi the desert or the tropical tornado, it exhibited none of their 
dislructive violence. It was rather the northern storm — grand, 
sublime, awful in the majesty of its power, but comparatively 
harmless in its effects. True, here and there a bolt descended 
and a city rocked to its foundations; but when the tempest had 
swept over it, the air was again tranquil and serene, the pulse of 
the people beat quicker, their hearts were lighter, and .they 
breathed more freely thao in an atmosphere polluted by the 
breath of tyrants and loaded with the bondman's groans. When 
Napoleon, "lord of desolation," led forth his locust legions over 
the plains of Europe, he carried in one hand the sword, in 
the other the toich. Blood flowed at his bidding like torrents 
from the mountain, and the light of burning cities revealed the 
wolf and the jackal holding their midnight carnival over the 
ghastly heaps of the slain. Ambition — remorseless, unquencha- 
ble, insatiable ambition steeled his heart to human suffering and 
drove him onward in his devastating career, a besom of destruc- 
tion to mankind, banishing peace, hope and happiness from the 
world. The spirit of this fell destroyer of his race was the spirit 
of Caesar and Tamerlane, and of every blood-stained conqueror 
since the world began. It was in this spirit Alexander led his 
invincible myrmidons to the Indus and Ganges, and Alarie let 
loose his Gothic hordes on the plains of Italy. In this spirit the 
Autocrat of Russia called his wild Cossacks from their bleak 
wastes, 

When leagued oppression poured to northern wars 
Her whiskered pandoors and hr r fierce hussars. 

Far different is the spirit with which the citizen-soldier of Amer- 
ica goes forth to battle. He seeks no triumphs with bloody tro- 
phies graced, nor spoils of plundered cities. No unhallowed lust 
of dominion impels him to deeds of rapine and cruelty; no brutal 
thirst of blood prompts him to tarnish the lustre of victory with 



.) ) 

— - 

acts of wanton barbarity. Animated with n patriotism as pure 
as it is ardent, he rights to maintain the rights and uphold the 
honor of his country. It was such a patriotism that drew an 
Allen, a Hardin, and a Ringgold to the gory field to offer up 
their lives a sacrifice for their country, leaving behind them names 
as imperishable as the fame of the fields which their valor helped 
to win — more deeply engraven on the hearls of their countrymen 
than on the stately columns which friendship and gratitude have 
reared to commemorate their heroic courage and untimely fall. 
For their country the brave comrades of these gallant men breas- 
ted the iron hail of the enemy on many a field of carnage, and bore 
their banner in triumph from city to city, from conquest to cpn- 
quest, enhancing the lustre of their achievements by their human- 
ity to the vanquished, and obliterating with the blessings of their 
country's civilization the bloody traces of their career of victory. 
The humanity displayed by the American troops during the 
war with Mexico, though proceeding in a great measure from 
that noble and chivalrcus generosity of disposition which forms 
so striking a trait in their character and in this respect distin- 
guishes them from the troops of all other nations, must be attribu- 
ted in some degree to the precepts and injunctions of him on 
whom the duty devolved of exercising a general superintendance 
over the operations of the army and of laying down the princi- 
ples on which the war was to be conducted. Mr. Polk, in issuing 
his instructions through the War Department, after reminding the 
troops of the objects for which the war was undertaken, enjoins 
them to abstain from all acts of pillage and of unnecessary vio- 
lence towards their enemies; to retaliate no outrage in a manner 
not sanctioned by the laws and usages of civilized nations; but 
ever bearing in mind that they were the representatives of a 
Christian and enlightened nation, sent forth to defend its rights 
and honor, to do no act unworthy of so high a mission. Such was 
the spirit of the instructions given by him at the commencement 
of hostilities And these instructions were not disregarded. Our 
troops were as generous in the use of victory, as they were heroic 
in battle; as sparing of the blood of their vanquished enemie?, as 



23 

in the hour of conflict they were profuse of their own. The his- 
tory which transmits to posterity the record of their triumphs, 
while it relates that these triumphs were unbroken by a single re- 
verse, will draw additional lustFe from the fact they were disgra- 
ced by no act unworthy of a magnanimous, chivalrous and chris- 
tian soldiery. 

What influence a war conducted on such humane principles will 
exert in softening the ferocity of the military spirit of other 
countries, and what effect it will have on the political condition 
of Mexico and on the martial spirit of our own people, are ques- 
tions which present a wide and interesting field of inquiry to the 
philosophic and reflecting mind. Into this field the limits I have 
prescribed to myself forbid me to enter, were I so inclined. The 
most that I can do without going beyond these limits and pro- 
tracting this address to an unreasonable length, is to point out the 
results of the war so far as they affect our own political condition. 

What are those results? Among the most prominent are a 
greater elevation of our character abroad as a warlike nation — a 
prestige to our name henceforward more terrible than our arms; 
indemnity for past injuries; security against future aggressions; 
a greater proficiency among our troops in the art of war; increa- 
sed confidence among the people in their valor and patriotism; 
and last, though not least, a vast accession of national strength 
and wealth and resources by the acquisition of valuable territory. 
Mexico, impoverished by the exactions of her rapacious civil ru- 
lers and a licentious priesthood, could make no pecuniary indem- 
nity for her spoliations on our commerce, much less for the expen- 
ses of the war. But if she had not money, she had land — vast 
tracts of surpassing fertility, unoccupied and uncultivated. By 
the treaty concluded at the close of the war, a portion of these 
surplus lands, equal in area to the original thirteen States, was 
ceded to this country. The acquisition of this territory, if it 
were the only successful achievement of Mr. Polk's administra- 
tion, would more than redeem all the errors ever imputed to him, 
and rescuing his name from the obloquy which political animosi- 
ty has heaped upon it, place it among the most illustrious that 



C4 

grace the annals of our countiy. Other Presidents have addec; 
States to our domain; and some have even thought ihcy were ac- 
quiring permanent fame and establishing a just claim to the grat- 
itude of their countrymen by extinguishing the Indian title to a 
few leagues of territory already in the occupation of our citizens. 
What, then, shall be the measure of our gratitude, or what limits 
shall we assign to the fame of him who has given us an Empire? 
— an Empire, not like the dominions of the Czar, locked in eter- 
nal ice and snow; not like the oriental possessions of Britain, the 
chosen abode of pestilence and death; nor shut up, as Thibet, 
from the pale of civilization by howling wastes and impassible 
mountains, but an Empire occupying the middle of the Temper- 
ate zone, of easy access from all parts of the world, and contain- 
ing in its bosom "the wealth of Ormus and of Ind." California — • 
I must pause, fellow-citizens, when I have uttered a name presen- 
ting ideas so vast, so overwhelming. California ! thou gilded 
dome of Freedom's temple — Nature's bright diadem ! what in 
comparison with thee are Oman's banks of pearl and palmy isles, 
Cey Ion's spicy groves, or Italia's sunny skies? In thee is realized 
all that the wildest fancy has conceived of the imaginary El Dor- 
ado. In thee the fictions of poetry arc exceeded by the reality 
of thy wondrous excellence. At thy name the American heart 
swells with pride; his imagination kindles; and busy speculation 
ranging in the far distant future, through countless images of gran- 
deur, glory and magnificence, is lost in the new and brilliant 
scenes thou openest in the great drama of man's existence I 

To an observer of the works of Nature she appears to have be- 
stowed her gifts on other countries on the plan of an equal and im- 
partial distribution. To some she has given fertility of soil; some 
she has enriched with immense deposites of mineral wealth; while 
others seem to have been created only to charm the eye by the 
beauty and variety of their scenery. In California this plan of 
distribution seems to have been laid aside. Nature grown im- 
patient of restraint, breaks through the laws of the Divine Econ- 
omy, and rising in her conceptions and her efforts to the produc- 
tion of a chefefceuvre that should eclipse her other wo r ks. collects 



55 

her richest stores and blends them here in a beautiful and haf 
frionious whole. Here she has placed a soil which Java may 
not boast. Here the mild zephyrs of a stormless ocean purify 
the atmosphere and equalize its temperature. The prairie spreads 
©ut its velvet lawn inviting the weary emigrant to repose. By 
its side majestic forests rise, teeming with animal life, offering 
food to the hungry and shelter to the houseless wanderer. Bright, 
•unny lakes reflect from their glassy surface the azure of Jamaica 
ikies; while far in the distance the chrystal torrents leaping down 
the craggy sides of the Nevada, form at its base majestic rivers 
roiling their ceaseless floods to the ocean, like the ancient Pac* 
tolus, over beds of golden sand. 

Such is California — not as fancy paints it — not as it is conceiv- 
ed in the day-dream of the enthusiast; but as described by those 
who have seen, who have explored it. The travellers and 
•migrants to this interesting region, perhaps without a single ex- 
ception, bear testimony to its genial climate, its fertile soil and 
boundless stores of mineral wealth. That it contains some waste 
places, even vast tracts "cursed with eternal barreness," cannot be 
denied; but of a large, perhaps the larger part of the country, 
equal in extent to several of our largest States, I have presented 
jou no overwrought picture. 

The acquisition of so favored a land and of the adjacent terri- 
tory of New Mexico, must in the xcry nature of things produce 
results of incalculable benefit to this country and to mankind.— 
It will pour into the Atlantic States, (and indeed is already pour- 
ing into them,) an immense flood of the precious metals, stimula- 
ting enterprise and industry, increasing the wages of labor, and 
augmenting the nation's wealth. Jt furnishes new and happy 
homes for the down trodden millions of Europe — the toil-worn 
nnd starving son of Erin, the sturdy and laborious German, the 
frugal Swede and the chivalrous Pole. It opens a door through 
which the civilization of the New World may pass into the be- 
nighted regions of the Old, awaking Asia from her long slumber 
and bringing the nations which sit in darkness into the gloriou* 
light of the Sua of Righteousness. Securing to a great cororoef- 



36 

ciai nation a long line of Pacific coast indented by some of the 
most capacious harbors in the world, it opens a channel of com- 
mercial intercouse between the extremes of the Eastern Conti- 
nent, free from the dangerous navigation, the stormj capes and 
tempestuous seas of the old and circuitous route around the Cape 
of Good Hope. Into this channel "the powerful agency of steam 
acting on a placid ocean" will soon draw the commerce of the 
Old World in its transit across the New, and will pour into the 
Unitei States the incalculable riches ©f the oriental trade — a 
trade which has successively enriched the most renowned mari- 
time nations of modern times; which reared the gorgeous palaces 
of Venice, and gave into the hands of her merchant-kings the 
sceptre of the seas; which is the source at the present day of En- 
gland's wealth and power; and which, more than a century ago, 
with the potency of Neptune's magic trident that drew Delos 
from the depths of the sea and gave it "a local habitation and a 
name," rolled the waves from the breast of Holland and made the 
ocean's slimy bed the abode of commerce, civilization and the arts. 
Such are some of the great results which will flow from the 
acquisition of this territory. Nor is the acccmplishment of these 
results as remote as, looking only at their magnitude, we might 
be led to suppose. What is now spoken in "the faltering lan- 
guage of prophecy," is in a process of rapid fulfilment; and before 
many who hear me shall have ceased to live, will give employ- 
ment to the historian's pen. A tide of migration is flowing to- 
wards California, unexampled in the history of mankind. Our 
countrymen lured by the prospect of gain and impelled by that 
restless energy which is ever urging them forward in search of 
new fields of enterprise and adventure, are severing the ties that 
bind them to their homes, bidding adieu to kindred and friends, 
and turning their faces towards the setting sun are faking up their 
line of march to the new "promise land." A few weeks of toil 
and privation borne with characteristic patience and fortitude, 
bring them to the foot of the Cordilleras, those stupendous eleva- 
tions which rise up before them as so many grim sentinels guard- 
ing the apprcachei to the treasures beyond. Ijndiicouraged by 



the difficulties of the ascent, they climb their rugged steeps and 
from their summits amid the clouds look down with ravished 
eyes upon the bright landscape which stretches out, to the utmost 
reach of vision, towards the western ocean. With spiiits revi« 
ved and strength renewed by the cheering prospect, they hasten 
down the western slopes, and disappear in the depths of the for- 
est. 

A few years roll by, and lo! the wondrous change they have 
wrought. The forests have been cut down; innumerable towns 
And villages have sprung up; majestic steamers plow the waters 
of the San Joaquim and Sacramento; "the iron horse courses 
along the base of the Nevada;" the arts flourish; the fields smile 
with agriculture, and busy commerce spreading her snowy pin- 
ions over the wide Pacific, bears to every clime the fruits of Ame- 
rican genius and industry with the flag which is the emblem of 
their ever advancing dominion. 

Westward the course of Empire takes its way; 
The four first acts already past, 

A fifth shall close the drama of the day- 
Time's noblest offspring is the last. 

The occasion seems to require that I should notice, in this con- 
nection, the fears of a large and respectable class of our citizens 
who imagine that they see in the continued extension of our ter- 
ritory imminent danger to the perpetuity of our institutions. — 
Happily the fears of this class, in every instance in which they 
were indulged, have proved groundless; the doleful predictions 
they have uttered of the dreadful consequences of expansion have 
in no case been verified. Neither the annexation of Louisiana, 
Florida, or Texas in the slightest degree disturbed the public 
tranquility or weakened the bonds of the Union. Nor is there 
any ground for apprehending such disastrous results from our re- 
cent acquisitions. Men who are capable of self-government 
when confined within narrow limits, require no despot's arm to 
keep them in check when their boundaries are enlarged and 
their dominion extended over a wider area. A comparison of 
the peaceful progress of our own country with die frequent con- 
ruinous of England and the terrible revolutions that toave to of 



23 

Sen deluged France with blood, will show that territorial expia- 
tion, instead of tending to discord and alienation, is a nation's 
safety-valve, through which the passions and prejudices of the 
people may find vent without disturbing their peace or endanger- 
ing the stability of their government. If this were not so, and if, 
as some of our citizens contend, the permanence of Republican 
institutions were in an inverse ratio to the number of acres over 
which they extend, the smallest Indian tribes could better mnin- 
tain such institutions than millions of Anglo-American freemen; 
and while the latter would be forced by vast extension to the dire 
alternative of dismemberment or submission to the iron rule of 
monarchy, the circumsciibcd domain of the untutored aborigines 
would present a secure receptacle to the blessings of civil liberty 
and insure their safe transmission to posterity! 

Such are the absurdities in which the opponents of the acquisi- 
tion of territory find themselves involved. A little reflection 
would show them that the duration of political institutions is not 
to be measured by the surveyors chain, or calculated from the 
statistics of the census-taker. The principles of free government 
are, (so to speak,) universal principles — as applicable to the gov- 
ernment of a million as of a thousand; and it is as absurb to say 
that Republican institutions are adapted to small Stales, but can- 
not be safely extended to large ones, as that rules of domestic go- 
vernment which promote harmony among six children, would in- 
troduce discord among twelve. That the laws of a State should 
be modified according to its local wants and circumstances, a!l 
will allow; but the fundamental principles of right government 
are the same in all countries and under all circumstances, eter- 
nal, immutable; and like the laws of God's moral universe, capa- 
ble of indefinite extension. 

But I will not seek to establish by argument a proposition which 
is self-evident — 1 will not weary you with the discussion of a 
question which has been already decided. The policy of territo- 
rial enlargement has received the sanction of so many administra- 
tions that it may now be regarded as the settled policy of the gov- 
ernment Tbe question raised by the annexation of Louisiana 



20 

U a question no longer; it is res adjudicuta, and the people in their 
sovereign capacity were the tribunal that decided it. They have 
said, "Give us room; give us room. Enlarge the area of freedom; 
spread abroad the principles of liberty and free governments." — 
In obedience to their high behests these principles have spread, 
and are still spreading. The attempt to confine them within the 
narrow limits of the original thirteen was as futile as it was un- 
wise. The swelling, bursting tide of American freemen cannot 
be restrained; it is rolling onward, and still onward, a mighty tor- 
rent, broad, deep, irresistible, sweeping away as chaff the institu- 
tions of despotism and the feeble barrier* erected to stay its pro- 
gress. Roll on, mighty tide! and God speed the day when eve- 
ry tyrant's foot-print shall be obliterated and every noxious exotic 
uprooted from American soil, and when a hundred millions of 
freemen, breathing the pure air of liberty, shall raise with one 
voice tbe soul-inspiring chorus, 

No pent-up Utica contracts our powers, 
For the whole boundless continent is ours. 

The sketch I have given you, fellow-citizens, of the acts of Mr. 
Polk's administration, though confined to the most important of 
those acts, presents a brilliant array of great, wise and just mea- 
sures, stamping his name forever illustrious on the page of histo- 
ry, and establishing on an impregnable basis his claims to the 
gratitude of his countrymen. No one term of any former Presi- 
dent — nay, it is questionable whether the whole political life of 
any other American Statesman, living or dead, presents so splen- 
did a galaxy of civil achievements, as the single term of Mr. Polk. 
The short period during which he held the helm of State, forms 
an epoch in the life of the nation, and will be hereafter referred 
to as one of the great landmarks of history. Providence, as if 
unwilling that anything should be wanting to signalize his admin- 
istration, vouchsafed to him almost a monopoly of the great cri- 
ses requiring the skill, forecast and energy of the Statesman, and 
crowded into his single term the events of a century. What these 
events will bring forth, and what judgment mankind will pro- 
souncc on his various measures when they come to be tie wed in 



30 



that clear light which only an experience of their effects can fur- 
nish, it is of course now impossible to determine. That a differ- 
ence of opinion should now exist is natural — it is the necessaiy 
result of that freedom of opinion guarantied by the sacred charter 
of our liberties. All who live under that charter m?ty and ought 
to hold firmly their honest convictions. The right of thought, is 
the birthright of every American freeman, one of his essential 
attributes and highest prerogatives, which it would be "abase 
abandonment of reason to resign.' 1 But honestly as men may 
differ with regard t© the soundness of Mr. Polk's policy, there 
can be no difference among them as to the patriotic devotion and 
zeal with which he labored in the public service. And here it 
may not be improper to contrast his noble self-dedication to his 
country with the heartless rapacity and ambition of some of his 
cotemporary rulers, the crowned potentates of Europe. I will 
not dishonor his memory by comparing him with that painted im« 
age of royalty, that empty shadow of power the regal puppet that 
•its upon the English throne. An individual better suited to my 
purpose is found in the person of the exiled king of France, who, 
whatever may have been his faults and his errors while swaying 
the sceptre of that country, was no nonenily in intellect or power^ 
but a sovereign in deed as he was in name, possessing the highest 
abilities of a Statesman, and active as he was able. Perhaps no 
monarch ever came to the throne under more favorable auspices, 
or enjoyed better opportunities of rendering himself a benefactor 
to his country and bis race, than Louis Phillipe. The tranquility 
of Europe, the universal acquiescence of the French people in hii 
assumption of the reins of government, their hopes and expecta- 
tions raised to the highest pitch by his liberal professions of de- 
votion to popular rights, all pointed to duty as the easiest and sa- 
fest line of conduct he could pursue, and to the advancement of 
his country's welfare as the most effectual means of cementing 
his power and transmitting it to his posterity. But no sooner had 
he climbed to the dizzy height of the first throne of Europe, than 
a fatal infatuation seized him. He forgot his pledges, his early 
piofessioDi and practices, the lessons of experience, the warning 



31 

fete of Louis ami of Charles X. Truth, honor, justice, the rights 
and happiness of his subject?, were lost sight of or trampled under 
foot in the ail-engrossing pjrsuit of the objects of a selfish ambi- 
tion — the consolidation of his power and the perpetuation of his 
dynasty. To attain these objects he strained to the utmost the 
resources of the country, and committed the grossest abuses of his 
power. Vice received at his hands the seal of legality, and polit- 
ical corruption and profligacy became the pensioners of govern- 
ment. His whole reign was a continual war on the morality and 
virtue efhis people — a series of the grossest usurpations and out- 
rages on their rights and liberties. Unable at length longer to 
endure his monstrous oppressions, they snatched from his hands 
the rod that smote them, dashed from them the yoke he was fas- 
tening to their necks, hurled him from his throne, and drove him 
forth, an outcast and a fugitive from the land of his fathers, "to 
seek an asylum on the soil of his country's hereditary and most 
inveterate foe." 

Such was the ignominious close of the career of this gifted but 
infatuated prince — such the terrible, but just retribution of his 
base recreancy. In contrast with his deep humiliation and shame, 
how pleasing to the true republican the bright halo that encir- 
cled his great trans-Atlantic cotemporary, when having faithfully 
discharged the duties of his exalted station, he voluntarily disro- 
bed himself of the vestures of office, and retired to the shades of 
private life, followed by the benedictions of his grateful and admi- 
ring countrymen. Let the rulers of the earth take warning and 
learn wisdom from the examples of Louis Phillipe and James K. 
Polk. Let them learn that the path of duty is the path of glory; 
that military establishments, however vast, are a feeble support 
to abused and ill-gotten power; that neither armies, nor fortress- 
es, nor gates of brass, nor walls of iron can shield an oppressive 
ruler from the just rage of a betrayed and outraged people. 

Of the personal qualities of Mr. Polk, his peculiar cast of mind, 
and the virtues that distinguished him in private life, I deem it 
necessary to say but little to the audience J see before me. Per- 
sonally known t* most of you, (to some ©f you intimately,) no 



S2 

ferrml driinention of his character it necessary to your appreei*' 
tion of his exalted worth. What I have to sav, therefore, on this 
branch of my subject, will be confined to such of his qualities as 
formed the most prominent ingredients of his character and exer- 
ted the greatest influence on his conduct. 

Conspicuous among these qualities was his Ambition. Like all 
those who have risen to great eminence among their fellow-men, 
Mr. Polk desired and sought distinction — not the ephemeral dis- 
tinction of the demagogue, the deceitful glitter of vain renown, 
whose gleams, like the false and fickle light on the warrior's 
plume, sometimes attract (he momentary g»ze of the multitude 
to the weakest and most worthless of their kind. His was the 
ambition of being as great as he seemed to be — he felt the desire 
of distinction founded on merit, the longing sublime and aspiration 
high for exalted worth; 

the impatient throb 
And longing of the heait that panti 
And reaches after distant good. 

He courted fame as a spur to honest deeds; he «ought the glor/ 
of great and noble actions. Such glory attained, he could look 
with composure on the decaying monuments of demagogues and 
kings, applying to himself the exultant lines of the poet, 

Exegi monumentum asre perennius, 
Eegalique situ pyramidum altius. 

Another leading trait in his character was his unbending in- 
tegrity. Honesty that could not be corrupted by prosperity or 
shaken by adversity, was written on every lineament of his strong- 
ly marked countenance, on every action of his life, every word 
that fell from his lips. No instance can be shown in the whole 
course of his life, in which he swerved from the strictest probity 
and honor, or sacrificed the interest of a friend or of his country 
to his own personal aggrandizement. 

Closely allied to this trait was that transparent sincerity and 
©pen-heartedness — that total absence of all hypocrisy and dissim- 
ulation, which marked his intercourse with his fellow-men, both 
as a public rcif*n and private citizen. No man can sar that Jams* 



K. Polk over betrayed him; that he held out false colors to the 
world, or deceived it by false professions and promises. 

A man of pure and simple heart, 

Ever disdaining a double part, 

He needed not a screen of lies, 

His inward bosom to disguise. 
Energy and decision were possessed by him to a degree tend= 
ing to rashness and obstinacy. But this tendency was happily 
counteracted by strong m6ral principle and the native unaffected 
benevolence of his heart. To this union of the sterner qualities 
with the benevolent affections he ©wed the admirable harmony 
and symmetry of his character — firmness which no danger could 
daunt, a steady perseverance which no difficulties, however for 
midable, could relax, united with an easy gracefulness and urban- 
ity of manner, a delightful amenity and benignity of temper 
which won the strong personal attachment of so many of his 
countrymen, diffused a perpetual sunshine around the domestic 
hearth and the social circle, moderated the heat of political dis» 
cussion, and threw the charm of a friendly cordiality over the 
cold formality of official intercourse; thus softening down the as- 
perities of life, and strewing his rugged path with flowers. 

That a man possessing so many noble, traits, so faithful to ev- 
ery public trust and exemplary in all the private relations of life, 
should incur the hatred of any portion of his fellow-men and 
become the object of detraction and abuse, much as it is deplored, 
will occasion nogurprise when we reflect that such has been the 
common lot of all wi>ose talents and virtues have raised them 
above the common level of mankind. Mr. Polk, like all others 
of our great Statesmen, (prominent among whom stands his illug- 
Irious competitor for Presidential honors, the immortal Sage of 
Ashland, a man whose lofty acd pure character every person not 
blinded by personal hatred or political prejudice must admire 
and revere, much as they may differ with him in political senti- 
ment,) — like this great man and every distinguished Statesman of 
our country, Mr. Polk had enemies — bitter, malignant, implaca- 
ble enemies. I allude not to fair and honorable political oppo- 
nents, who disapproving the political principles he professed, con- 
scientiously opposed his elevation to power: I speak of those men 



34 

of little souls and narrow minds, who "withering at another's good 
hate the"excellence they cannot reach," and seek to conceal it 
from the public eye with obloquy and detraction. 

The ignoble mind 
Erer loves to assail with secret blow, 
The loftier, purer spirits of their kind. 

Calumny, like Death, loves a "shining mark." But its envenom- 
ed shafts fall harmless and pointless when directed against a man 
"armed so strong in honesty" as James K. Pelk. Mankind, with 
all their malignity, have so strong a sense of justice find so high 
an appreciation of exalted merit, that it will rise above oppression 
and gather lustre from reproach. ' The vapors which gather 
round the risiug sun and follow him in his coarse, seldom fail at 
the close of it to forma magnificent theatre for his reception, and 
to invest with variegated tints and a softened effulgence- the lu- 
minary they cannot hide.' 

Envy will merit, as it shade pursue, 

And like a shadow prove the substance true; 

For, envied worth, like Sol eclipsed, makes known 

Tht opposing body' s grossnesa, not its own. 

"When first that sun too powerful beams displays, 

It draws up vapors that obscure its rays; 

But even those clouds at last adorn its way, 

Reflect new glories, and augment the day. 

Besides the points in Mr. Polk's character already enumerated, 
there was one other which, if he had nothing else to recommend 
him to our affectionate remembrance, weuld make his memory 
ever dear to every true American — his Patriotism. From early 
youth he evinced an ardent love of country. It was the predom- 
inant feeling of his heart, his ruling passion, "impelling him," 
says one of his most distinguished eulogists, "to an ever advancing 
search for his country's welfare, at the sacrifice of domestic ease, 
the delights of friendship, and the consolations of health." Hii 
patriotism, unlike that of some of his countrymen, was not of that 
narrow sectional kind which is hounded by geographical lines 
and parallels of latitude. It comprehended in its grasp the whole 
country, it took in its embrace every valley and hill and plain 
shadowed by the <ving of our eagle; and it scorned and despised 
that new-fangled and spurious patriotism which grows with rank 



35 

luxuriance under the ardent sun of the South, but withers under 
the cold sky and biting frosts of the North. Such a patriotism, 
(if it can be called by that name,) was the object of his deepest 
abhorrence; and he lost no opportunity to icprobate and de- 
nounce it as of mischievous and fatal tendancy. In his hut mes- 
sage to Congress, he warns the people of the Spirits of Evil lurk- 
ing abroad in the land, sowing the seeds of sectional discord, and 
striving to array one portion of the people in a hostile attitude to- 
wards the other. In language of thrilling eloquence he depicts 
the blessings we enjoy under the Union, and the desolation and 
ruin that would attend its downfall; and he solemnly exhorts ev- 
ery lover of his country, every friend of freedom to resist unto 
death the unprincipled demagogues and misguided fanatics who 
would madly destroy it. And permit me to ask, fellow-citizens, 
Has this appeal, so far as you are concerned, been made in vain? 
Are you prepared to see our glorious confederacy dismembered, 
or are you ready, if necessary, to offer up ycur lives, a willing 
sacrifice for its preservation. The Union — the work of a former 
age, the legacy of a past generation, hallowed by the blessings of 
its immortal authors and endeared to us by the toils and sufferings 
that gave it birth — such is the work which traitorous faction 
threatens and against which frenzied fanaticism lifts its impious 
hand. Will you guard, defend, protect it, or shall it fall, bury- 
ing und^r its ruins the prosperity ar.J happiness of our people, 
and the liberties, the happiness, am. the hopes of mankind. For 
more than half a century our country has stood up before the 
world, an example to the oppressed of every clime. It has been 
to the moral what the sun is to the natural world. Under its 
genial influence the chilled hearts of Europe's vassals have been 
thawed, their torpid limbs loosened, their dormant energies awa- 
kened. They have recent]*' arisen in their strength and achieved 
revolutions which, had they been predicted a few years ago, would 
have been considered to the last degree improbable, if not abso- 
lutely impossible. Every nation in Europe, with two or three ex- 
ceptions, presents a new, and to the eye of freedom a pleasing 
aspect. France is already a Republic; the red surge ofrevofir 



36 

lion has swept over Austria, and her hoary despotism totters to 
its fall. Hungary, bursting from the iron grasp of her oppressors, 
has written with their blood her stern and unalterable resolve to 
be free; and the Italian, the degenerate and servile Italian, fired 
with Brutus' patriotic zeal, has thrown aside the badge of his de- 
gradation and put on the dignity of the Roman of the days of 
Fabius and Coriolanus. "Kings feel their thrones rocking beneath 
them; 1 ' they hear the rumblings of the volcano, and feel the throes 
and heavings of earth portentous of the approaching eruption. — 
Man, rising from his depression, casts off the livery of his oppres- 
sors; the spell of his blind and stupid acquiescence in the doc- 
trine of the Divine right of kings is broken. His fond attach- 
ment to ancient institutions, at once the mark and the source of 
his vassalage, is giving way to a spirit of bold and fearless inves- 
tigation, which, if not arrested, will lead ere long to universal free, 
dom. 

Shall this work go on? Shall the moral world roll on towards 
its goal, or once more stand still ? Shall man stand upright be- 
fore his Maker, redeemed, disenthralled, with no manacles on his 
hands and no fetters on his conscience, or shall he again bow his 
neck to receive the despot's yoke? You— the citizens of this 
great commonwealth are the arbiters of his fate. Preserve the 
commonwealth entire, and all is well. Sunder the bonds which 
unite us, and you extinguish the Light of the World, leaving man- 
kind without a ray to cheer their hearts or guide their wandering 
feet, to grope their way through time into hopeless eternity. 

Heed then, I implore you, the admonition of him who though 
Head yet speaketh, exhorting every citizen of the Republic to de- 
fend its integrity. The federal Union, it can, it must be preserved. 
Such are the words which come up from the tomb of the illus- 
trious patriot whose loss we have met here to deplore. Let his 
words sink deep in your minds; write them on your hearts; and 
when the foe comes, if come he does, with traitor arm to strike a 
blow at this fair temple, gird on your armor, and rally to its de- 
fence. 

I have now, fellow-citizens, performed to the best of my ability 






the task assigned me. Though not executed in the way I could 
wish or jou may have desired, yet even the faint outline I have 
presented of Mr. Polk's life and character affords abundant ev- 
idence that he was no ordinary man. Nature had tfast him in no 
common mould — in every act of his life you sec evidence of tal- 
ents of a high order directed and controlled by strong moral prin- 
ciples. Unlike most of those on whom Nature has bestowed su- 
perior intellectual endowments, he did not consider his powers as 
entirely his own, but rather as given to him in trust for the bene- 
fit of his country and mankind. To this strong sense of moral ac- 
countability, this christian view of his obligations to his country 
and his fellow men he owed the spotlessness of a fame which, not 
confined to this country or this generation, extends to every spot 
where there are men who admire great talents in union with 
great virtues, and which will live when all the frail monuments 
of art, erected to commemorate the magnificence of kings, shall 
have crumbled into dust. A few words with regard to the clos- 
ing scene of his eventful career, and I have done. 

Having resigned the helm of State to his appointed successor, 
he hastened to return to his home in Tennessee. At every place 
on his route he was received with the highest distinction; the au- 
thorities of the various towns and cities through which he passed, 
vied with each other in showing him attention, and his appear- 
ance was every where hailed with the acclamations of the people. 
History records few instances of civil service awakening such en- 
thusiasm in the minds of the people — few instances of a private 
citizen, however eminent for talents and devotedness to his coun- 
try, receiving such strong manifestations of the attachment and 
gratitude of his countrymen. 

Stricken down, a few months after reaching Nashville, by a 
malady to which he had been long subject, the ablest medical prac- 
titioners were immediately summoned, and his friends hastened to 
his side. But neither the skill of physicians, the sympathy of 
friends, nor the prayers of kindred could avail to prevent a fatal 
termination of his disease. Death had marked his victim — no 
mortal hand could turn aside his fatal dart. Seeing his end ap- 



38 

preaching Mr. Folk was reminded of a great duty he had hitherto 

neglected to perform— the duty of publicly declaring his belief 
in that religion which he had so strikingly exemplified in the un- 
deviating rectitude of his own conduct, and illustrated by the 
soundness of the moral principles he had ever sough t to instil 
into the minds of others. Summoning around him several ministers 
of the Gospel, amid ail the solemnities of approaching dissolution 
he avowed his faith in the plan of salvation revealed in the Bible, 
and received the emblems of the "blood shed and bo'dy slain for 
man's redemption." This duty performed, he was ready to de- 
part. On the 15th of June, of the present year, with a calm re- 
signation to the will of Providence, supported in his last hour by 
the consolations of the Chiistian's faith, and cheered by the re- 
trospect of a well-spent life and bright anticipations of the resur- 
rection and the life eternal, he yielded up his spirit unto God.— 
Like another eminent individual who had just preceded him— 
one who hnd filled the highest office in the gift of his countrymen, 
and adorned the walks of private life with every Christian virtue 
— he could look calmly on "the end of earth," and say "1 am 
composed." And of his death his friends might say, as was said 
of the death of his venerable predecessor, Hoc est nimirum, ?nagis 
fdiciter de vita migrarc quam moriJ 

Thus lived and thus died James K. Polk. He whom we lately 
saw, fellow-citizens, at the summit of earthly greatness, with all 
his honors clustering thick around him, the object of the envy of 
some, of the admiration of all, is no longer among the living. — 
Cold, inanimate, insensible alike to our praise and our censure, 
he lies under the clods of the valley, and 4 no sound shall awake 
him to glory again.' "Full of honors, in the ripeness of his re- 
nown, surrounded by his family and friend?," the messenger of 
God appears and bids him come away. Obedient to the sum- 
mons he has passed from the scenes of earth to the gloomy City of 
the Dead. Here his manly form shall be no more seen, nor his 
voice heard — the places that knew him shall know him no more 
forever. But why should we lament his departure? — why sorrow 
that "life's fitful k\cr o'er, he has shuffled off this mortal coil"? 



39 

His great mission having been fulfilled, his glorious work com- 
plete, it was meet that he should find in|death that rest which was 
denied himjn life. »Sleep on, noble patriot! we cannot, we would 
not disturb thy rest with unseemly and unavailing grief. Sleep 
till the last trump of the Archangel shall summon Presidents and 
Kings, and citizens and subjects, to answer at the bar of the 
Most High for the deeds done in the bodj. Thy toils, thy pri- 
vations have earned repose; and though thou art left alone to thy 
long slumber, and darkness covers thee, and silence reigns over 
thy narrow tenement, thou art not forgotten. Genius has recor- 
ded thy deeds; Truth and Justice shall guard thy fame. Thy 
countrymen, assembled round thy tomb, offer to thy cherished 
memory the homage of grateful hearts. In life their interests 
and their happiness were safely entrusted to thy keeping.— 
When the bark in which they had launched their fortunes was 
tossed by the winds and waves ©f a tempestuous sea, thy eye saw 
through the gathering gloom the dangers that lay in its course? 
and thy hand guided it safely onward, through eyery peril, to- 
wards its destined haven. And now, 

When hushed the rude whirlwind that ruffled the deep, 

And the sky no longer dark tempests deform; 
When our perils are past, shall our gratitude sleep ? 

No— thanks to the pilot that weathered the storm. 

Unfeeling, unthankful we hask in the blaze, 
When the beams of the sun in full majesty shine; 

When he sinks to repose, with fondness we gaze, 
And mark the mild lustre that gilds his decline. 

Lo! Polk— when the course of thy greatness is o'er, 

Thy talents, thy virtues we fondly recall; 
How justly we prize thee, when lost we deplore, 

Admired in thy zenith, but loved in thy fall. 




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